I Didn't Die after a Major Cut While on Eliquis

I've been on full dose Eliquis 5 mg on and off over the years due to the 3 ablations I've had. I've now been on a low dose of Eliquis (2.5mg twice daily) for well over a year because of my Watchman implant and subsequent leak.

One of the biggest fears I've had being on Eliquis is bleeding events. The very first time I took Eliquis I lost sleep over the thought of bleeding to death from a simple knife cut or nose bleed...lol.

So far I've been lucky as I've only had a couple bad nose bleeds, but over the weekend I was working on a project and I had to use a cutting board. It slipped and somehow my thumb got in the way and I slammed the cutter on the tip of my thumb. It was a very deep cut and it went through half of my thumbnail. I've never bled so much or for so long in my life! Surprisingly, I was pretty calm even though the room and the bathroom looked like a murder scene...lol.

It did take almost 3 HOURS for the bleeding to stop but it did finally stop and now two days later I'm on the mend. I share this event for a few reasons. First, when you are on a blood thinner, you likely will bleed a lot and for a long time if you have a "major" cut beyond a simple paper cut or something. Second, don't panic! You'll survive. Three, be patient. It may take much longer for your cut to stop bleeding than a normal person but it will stop eventually. Finally, have a first aid kit ready!

I was woefully unprepared in terms of having a first aid kit ready to go. All of my life I've never needed anything more than a box of band aids and a bottle of hydrogen peroxide sitting around the house. It didn't dawn on me that I might need more now that I'm on blood thinners. I am in the process of putting together a first aid kit in case this happens again. I welcome anyone's feedback on what should be in every first aid kit for those of us on blood thinners. I found this product called BleedStop (do a Google search for it) so I'm going to stock up on that along with various antiseptics, band aids, etc.

The amount of blood that came out of my "simple" cut, and the length of time it bled, was astonishing, especially given that I am on a LOW dose Eliquis. I couldn't help but wonder what would happen if I had a major injury - like a finger cut off, or being in a car accident where you might have some sort of internal bleeding? Those thoughts still freak me out but I'm not worried anymore about those every day cuts and injuries I used to worry about!

Travis

I had the same worries, but as Mark Twain quipped, most of them never happened. I have fallen off my road bike and had contusions, scrapes, cuts, surgeries...and I'm still here. As we say to people who come here with similar concerns, the modern series of anti-coagulants retard the clotting process, they don't prevent it.

I got Wound Seal as soon as I was on Eliquis. It says that is stops bleeding instantly. In a pinch, tumeric powder is said to work too. When I was on 5 mg of Eliquis twice a day I had to have a fingernail removed and yes, it bled a lot, but with pressure and a bit of time it did stop with no problem. And if we were in an accident, the ER has many ways of stopping bleeding even if you are on an anticoagulant.

From your description of the wound it would have bled a lot and for a long time even without the Eliquis. The thumb is very vascular.

External bleeding on Eliquis is a very exaggerated fear in most people. The thing people need to remember is that anticoagulants don't cause bleeding nor do they make it bleed more. All they do is slow clotting and therefore prolong the bleeding. In 15 years in EMS, I never once encountered bleeding that couldn't be controlled, and that includes an amputated arm. Firm direct pressure for 15 minutes will stop almost any bleeding even with anticoagulants. The mistake people make is not pressing hard enough and long enough. No peeking! If you peek, the timer starts over.

I have some of those "coban" bandages in various places. When I remember I take them to blood draws as well because they don't always have them there- and if they poke me in the hand it helps keep the bruising down. I will add the bleed stop or wound seal as well to my First aid kit. Glad you shared this.

I moved overseas and picked up six Conan bandages while in the states. I took it to the ER before. Nobody knew it existed.,I was told Conan was originally used for horses legs. Makes sense, one can’t use adhesive.

I always carry a roll of Conan in my purse. Put it in a ziplock bag otherwise it will really pick up dirt.

I am on Eliquis 5mg BID for afib. I went up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula last summer and camped for the season in a pretty remote area. I drove my truck to a trail head about five miles from my campsite and went for a hike. About three miles into the hike, I stepped on a shed deer antler. It was laying on the ground, points up, and was razor sharp because critters had been gnawing on it. The antler went through the sole of my shoe and into my foot a good way. I pulled the antler out of my shoe and foot, and the blood started dripping out at a pretty good rate. I tried applying pressure and elevating my foot, but it was difficult to do and didn't seem to be helping, I so put my shoe on and started walking back to my truck, my shoe squishing with blood with each step. I had a cell phone, but no service. A couple of times I thought, "this would be a heck of a way to die". It took a while to get back to the parking area. Then I had to drive another 30 minutes to a small rural hospital. The floor mat of my truck had blood all over it by the time I got there. At the ER they applied pressure for about an hour and finally got the bleeding stopped and gave me a tetanus shot. The ER doc said it was a first for him. Oh yeah, I carried the antler out with me and it sits on my fireplace mantle. LOL.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 02/14/2024 12:39AM by FibberMcGee.

I have another health issue called Schazki ring and it has been causing me daily nose bleeds for about 3 weeks now. I am on a thinner called apixaban and the nose bleeds are easy to stop in about 1 minute with just pressure. I ride my motorcycle a lot and carry a bandage similar to wound seal. Its in my tank bag and I tell any riding partners where it is and why I carry it.

Quote
FibberMcGee
I am on Eliquis 5mg BID for afib. I went up to Michigan's Upper Peninsula last summer and camped for the season in a pretty remote area. I drove my truck to a trail head about five miles from my campsite and went for a hike. About three miles into the hike, I stepped on a shed deer antler. It was laying on the ground, points up, and was razor sharp because critters had been gnawing on it. The antler went through the sole of my shoe and into my foot a good way. I pulled the antler out of my shoe and foot, and the blood started dripping out at a pretty good rate. I tried applying pressure and elevating my foot, but it was difficult to do and didn't seem to be helping, I so put my shoe on and started walking back to my truck, my shoe squishing with blood with each step. I had a cell phone, but no service. A couple of times I thought, "this would be a heck of a way to die". It took a while to get back to the parking area. Then I had to drive another 30 minutes to a small rural hospital. The floor mat of my truck had blood all over it by the time I got there. At the ER they applied pressure for about an hour and finally got the bleeding stopped and gave me a tetanus shot. The ER doc said it was a first for him. Oh yeah, I carried the antler out with me and it sits on my fireplace mantle. LOL.

That's quite the story!! (I live in Mi so I can picture it... including the remote-ness of the hospital).

While on 5mg of Eliquis twice a day, I thought it would be a good idea to take a machete out to my local trail to trim the forsaken mesquite trees and sprouts that annoyingly grew along the trail. I was at it for about 45 minutes when I noticed my new machete was starting to dull a bit...and my grip was beginning to get sweaty. Being born stupid I continued, and while hacking at a branch above my head, the machete slipped out of my hand and twirled to the ground. It embedded about 3/4" into the ankle junction of my left front foot. It then fell out as I watched blood pulse out about 3" from the 1.5" wide cut it left.

I was in shorts and first tried to wrap my shirt around it to no avail. Then, I used a paper towel I had brought and my shorts' drawstring to wrap it. That got it stopped in no time. I was able to slowly and carefully walk back to my vehicle and got a few staples for my stupidity

JohnG

A couple of bleeding stories from my EMS days....

Story 1
We were dispatched to a rural home for a "wood splitter injury." That's all the info we got, so en route we were debating what it was going to be. I figured since they didn't give many details, it was probably fairly trivial, but my partner was certain it was going to be an amputation.

Partner got it right. When we pulled up there was the homeowner sitting on his front porch steps. He had his right forearm wrapped in a towel in his lap, and the remainder of his right arm elevated over his head with his wife applying direct pressure with a towel. With the elevation and pressure, they had succeeded in stopping most of the bleeding without using a tourniquet. (Nice to encounter a patient with a clue.) He had been splitting firewood in the woods behind his house. The splitter had jammed on a log, and when he yanked on the log, it came out unexpectedly while his arm was still in the splitter, so off it went instantly as the splitter snapped shut. He then had to walk a quarter mile home carrying his lopped off arm. As it turns out, he was also on Pradaxa. Nevertheless, his blood loss wasn't serious and we were able to stop the remaining bleeding with a pressure bandage, ice and elevation. The arm was successfully reattached.

Story 2
This guy wasn't as lucky or as smart. We were called to a residence by the police to confirm an untimely death. Walked in to find a deceased elderly man sitting in an easy chair, TV on, his right foot in a bucket that was nearly overflowing with mostly congealed blood. I'm no medical examiner but this one was easy. I could see that the source of the blood was a ruptured varicose vein, and in his collection of pill bottles we found a current prescription for warfarin. So apparently when the vein was injured, he decided to sit down to watch TV with his foot in a bucket to catch the blood and just let it stop on its own. Well, between having the leg in a dependent position and the warfarin, that bleeding wasn't going to stop without more intervention... and it didn't. He slowly exsanguinated right there in his easy chair. Probably not an unpleasant way to go. He would have just slowly lost consciousness. A shame, though, because had he called 911 it would have been trivially easy to deal with.